White Blank Page
by wunderxfunk
Summary: A love story about what happened between Helena Ravenclaw and The Bloody Baron. Based on the song "White Blank Page" by Mumford & Sons


Moonlight trickled down through the trees to play on the forest floor in obscured patterns and shapes, making everything it touched look gray. A girl in a pale gown shone white in the forest clearing. She was holding a glimmering tiara that reflected an unnatural amount of light in the shade of the woods. A rustling in the leaves behind her caused her to turn quickly, heart hammering, and stash her prized object behind her. She dove into the shelter of the trees, out of sight.

A man stepped out into glade, his black stare sweeping the edges of the thick, black shadows. His wintry voice sliced through the sounds of the crickets and the crows. "I know you're here. _Homenum Revelio_."

xxxx

Salazar Slytherin leaned forward across the dinner table, a mischievous smile dancing across his face. "Helena, have you met Eduard? He is one of my most prized students, a baron now, I believe." Eduard nodded but stared at his plate, afraid to make eye contact with the young girl that sat across from him. Her icy blue eyes finally caught his when he glanced up. "No, I have not, Professor Slytherin." She maintained eye contact with him, showing sincere interest. He felt a surge of desire.

Slytherin chuckled gaily. "Well, he's quite a cunning fellow. A very eligible bachelor, also," he added with a wink. Helena's look became slightly smoldering. It warmed Eduard's chest, and he felt his face grow hot. "Helena's in the middle of her seventh year," Rowena Ravenclaw cut in, beaming proudly at her daughter, "and she's no dimwit herself." She and Salazar exchanged a sly look.

"Pleased to meet you," Helena said elegantly, her rosy lips curving gently upwards. Eduard returned the smirk.

For the rest of the night, they continued to share glimpses with each other, usually accompanied by a flirtatious smile or some small talk. Helena would flip her long brown hair to get his attention. He did not stop feeling that pleasant warmth until after all of the guests had finished their final Christmas toasts and left for home.

xxxx

_Can you lie next to her_

_and give her your heart, your heart,_

_as well as your body?_

_And can you lie next to her_

_and confess your love, your love,_

_as well as your folly?_

_xxxx_

The grounds were covered with the thick blanket of winter, yet the sky was bright blue, blotted with fluffy white clouds. A worn path wove around the lake where students had taken a stroll on their day off. Helena's arm was wound around his as they strode along the edge, her beautiful face adorned with a pretentious look as other girls whispered behind their hands about the pair. Eduard was, after all, a fairly handsome man of wealth. His dark hair was well-groomed and his robes were of the latest style. She relished the attention being with him in public brought. He, on the other hand, did not notice the envy directed towards them. Only her refined features, her skin, her lips.

_xxxx_

_Can you kneel before the king_

_and say I'm clean, I'm clean?_

_xxxx_

The Baron whirled to face her, his face contorted with a sick frenzy of exhilaration. "I've spent a very long time looking for you, Helena."

She silently dropped the diadem behind her before stepping out of the darkness. "What do you want?" Her voice was laced with loathing.

Bitterness turned his grin into something ghastly and demonic. "Oh, you know what I want, dear." His spiteful laugh was like freezing water drenching her to the skin.

Helena glared at him with abhorrence. "You came all the way here to hunt me down?" She shook her head. "I could never love you." The scowl that flashed across his visage was evident even through the veil of night, despite his trying to conceal it. _As long as he doesn't take back the diadem._

xxxx

Early summer was settling over the grounds, giving the air a sweet floral perfume that made him think of Helena every time he inhaled. Eduard found himself getting lightheaded from breathing a little too zealously as he drew near the castle. In his hand, he held a small box. He had spent weeks searching for the most magnificent diamond in Spain, and had paid well over a few years' earnings for it. She, of course, was worth it. Though she had never told him she loved him, he believed deep in his heart that she genuinely did.

Helena was just leaving her final afternoon class, her silky brown hair in a long plait. Eduard was waiting patiently outside the room. He approached her and kissed her cheek. "Would you please accompany me for a walk?"

She hesitated, surprised to see him there. "Alright. Would you hold my books?" Helena placed the leather-bound stack into his arms.

They headed down from the castle towards the lake, as was their habit. Everything was green and golden as the sun dropped towards the horizon. "Helena," he started carefully, "we've been spending time together for a few months now. I find you charming, beautiful, talented, and just wonderful, as a whole. I assume that you have some sort of feelings for me." He studied her carefully, but she was looking towards the other people who were outside wandering the grounds.

"I could give you anything you wanted. I love you, Helena." His voice was beginning to sound pleading. Eduard cleared his throat. "Please look at me." She finally met his gaze, but her blue eyes seemed slightly clouded.

"Helena Ravenclaw," Eduard set the books on the ground and fell to one knee in front of her. "Please do me the honor of marrying me. It would make my life complete. These past months have been indescribably wonderful, and I know I will never feel this way about anyone else." In his mind, he was screaming a prayer for a positive answer, bargaining the termination every one of his immoral habits with God just for her to say yes.

She stared at him vacantly for a long time. He had no clue what she could possibly be thinking, but he begged fate that it was something in his favor. After about a minute, Helena's mouth opened to emit a single word. "No."

xxxx

_But tell me now, where was my fault_

_in loving you with my whole heart?_

_Oh, tell me now, where was my fault_

_in loving you with my whole heart?_

_xxxx_

_Dear Eduard,_

_I have decided to leave Hogwarts and I am not returning. I am very flattered by your proposal, but I feel that I cannot accept it. I need someone ambitious who can match me intellectually more than emotionally. The truth is that I never foresaw our relationship becoming anything serious. I apologize for misleading you, but I do not feel anything for you. Please do not try to find me._

_Helena_

xxxx

His oak desk was a disarray of crumpled parchment and splotches of murky ink. The letter sat in the center of it all, smudged where tears had landed on words instead of margins. Eduard was torn between a reply begging her to return to him, or vomiting all of the ire he felt onto a page with his quill. He snatched a new white piece of parchment from a pile and placed it in front of him.

The white sheet taunted him with his emptiness, and reminded him of what remained for him in the world. The wrath he felt towards her was indescribable, but at the same time he felt guilty for this hatred. He would never stop loving her. In the end, he just signed the plain piece of parchment "The Baron" and tethered it to his owl's leg to deliver. He wanted Helena to know he had received her apology; he had nothing to say.

xxxx

_A white blank page_

_and a swelling rage._

_You did not think_

_when you sent me to the brink._

_You desired my attention,_

_but denied my affection._

_So tell me now, where was my fault_

_in loving you with my whole heart?_

_Oh, tell me now, where was my fault_

_in loving you with my whole heart?_

_xxxx_

His black eyes flashed like onyx and the night suddenly seemed much more eerie than peaceful. "I did not come here for you, wench. I valued the lives of vermin more than yours." The Baron took a step closer to her, and Helena found it a little more challenging to breathe. "I came to bring you home. Your mother is ill, and she requested to see you."

Helena's eyes glanced back towards the diadem. "I can't." Her voice no longer sounded brash, but mild. Still, it had a sense of resolution.

The Baron followed her gaze. He noticed something glinting in the brush. "What is that?" He took another step.

Helena threw herself forward into him, and he was taken off guard and stumbled backwards. Both of their expressions were livid. "Get away!" She was frantic and screaming- no longer beautiful or elegant.

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TOUCH ME!" The Baron roared, and Helena shrunk back from his rage. His eyes were now soulless. She felt as if she was staring into the eyes of something pure evil. Any softness he had ever displayed towards her had completely departed.

With the swift swing of his arm, she was cuffed and thrown towards the ground. He attempted to step past her into the woods to grab the diadem, but she latched onto one of his legs. He looked down at the bruise forming on her face and felt a pang of remorse.

"Please come back with me. She is dying, Helena. She wishes nothing more than to see you. It is her final request." The Baron had stopped in his path towards the tiara.

"I can't," Helena sobbed, "I don't want to see her." He didn't know what she had done. She couldn't bare to face her mother.

"You are an ungrateful monster." The Baron shook her off of his leg with revulsion and took another step towards the woods to retrieve the shining object. Helena stood up and yanked her wand out of its strap around her thigh. She aimed it at his head and it fired a stunning spell that missed narrowly and hit a tree beside him.

He swiveled around to face her, his face malicious once again. She spat at him in an attempt to distract him from the diadem. Without stopping the think, the Baron drew his dagger.

Helena did not see and came at him once more with her wand. He drove the knife into her abdomen. The wand fell from her hand, which retreated to cover her wound. Step-by-step, she staggered backwards.

A black stain bloomed across the front of her dress, as if the night was swallowing her from the inside. She sputtered, her face draining until it resembled the color of the moon. The Baron dropped his dagger and rushed to her, but everything was slowed in the grayscale of the midnight light.

It took an eternity for her to hit the ground, shaking as if the air was freezing and not muggy and humid. It took double that time for him to reach her side and scoop her upper body from the ground. It took no time at all for him to begin sobbing with regret. Her eyes linked with his, but she said nothing, even though he knew she could. Perhaps she had nothing to say.

The stain had consumed her entire front. The Baron laid his hand on it and felt the soggy fabric of her dress as it soaked through onto his skin. "I'm so sorry."

Helena stared emptily, just like she had after he asked for her hand- a white blank page. Then, the corners of her mouth turned upward and she focused a little more on him. Still, she remained silent, stuck in a gentle smile. That was her expression when her last breath rattled her and stopped abruptly, as if caught in her throat.

The Baron cradled her close to him, his jacket becoming saturated with the blood that still drained from her wound. He wept wildly, uncontrolled just like he had been in his rage. She was still the same pretty girl that had smiled at him from across a Christmas toast, who had raised her glass towards him and drank to his happiness and health.

When he was sapped of all emotion, he carefully laid her head down on the grass and rose to investigate what she had been so desperate to protect. He moved the leaves concealing the object and recognized it as soon as the light hit it. The diadem.

Helena had given her life to protect the secret. She did not want to see her mother because she couldn't face her after stealing it. The Baron looked back towards the broken body of the only woman he would ever love. He picked up the headdress and took it a bit further into the woods. He used his blood-covered hands to dig a hole in the dirt just outside the clearing. When it was two feet deep, he tossed the diadem in and covered it. No one would ever unearth the secret.

The Baron picked up his blade and angled it towards his own heart. _This won't hurt, _he consoled himself feebly, _I stopped feeling a long time ago. _He plunged the point towards himself with as much force as possible and felt as it split the flesh and bone. He had been right. There was no pain. Only darkness. The secret perished with him on the forest floor.

xxxx

_Lead me to the truth and I_

_will follow you with my whole life._

_Lead me to the truth and I_

_will follow you with my whole lie._


End file.
